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John Wayne Butz's elderly mother rested her head against the wooden courtroom bench after the verdict Wednesday that branded him a convicted sex offender and guaranteed a 10-year prison sentence.

Her breathing, already aided by an oxygen tube, became heavier as the jury left and the judge prepared to assign dates for Butz's sentencing and his evaluation by the state's Sexual Offenders Assessment Board.

It became heavier still as the simmering hostilities between her disbelieving relatives and those of her son's vindicated accuser erupted in an exchange of stares and mumbled broadsides.

"Why would people want to put people through this?" one of Butz's relatives, a middle-aged woman, said through tears and her own hyperventilation. "I don't understand."

Another relative, a middle aged man, looked at the accuser's family across the courtroom aisle and said: "It ain't right. Why do they get away with lies?"

A pair of Luzerne County sheriff's deputies rushed to fill the void between the factions as the tensions grew between the families, whose long-ago friendship was fractured by allegations Butz sexually assaulted a girl he and his girlfriend had been entrusted to baby-sit.

"It's just a sad situation because both families were close friends," Assistant District Attorney Jenny Roberts said. "The defendant's actions not only affected the victim, but his family members and her family members."

Judge David W. Lupas, rising from the bench, called for a 10-minute recess and ordered the accuser's family out of the courtroom to forestall a greater confrontation. Butz's family remained behind, waiting for the paramedics to arrive and aid his mother.

Several of Butz's relatives crowded around the woman as they waited. Butz's attorney, Charlie Ross, instructed the woman, "just breathe." Butz, in a shirt and tie, paced nearby and hugged the middle-aged woman who had questioned the verdict moments earlier.

"Stay strong mom," Butz's sister said as the paramedics wheeled her out of the courtroom. A court official said she would be taken to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital for treatment.

Lupas returned to the bench minutes later, setting sentencing for Jan. 18 and approving the prosecutor's request that Butz be evaluated by the state's Sexual Offenders Assessment Board. If deemed a sexually violent predator, Butz would be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life under the state's Megan's Law statute.

Lupas, deeming Butz a "danger to persons in the community," revoked his bail and ordered the 41-year-old Hanover Township man to remain incarcerated at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility until sentencing.

Butz cried as the sheriff's deputies moved in to cuff and shackle him.

"My mother," he mumbled. "My mother!"

Jurors deliberated for little more than four hours before convicting Butz on all charges: rape of a child, indecent deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, indecent assault and aggravated indecent assault, all felonies, and corruption of minors, a misdemeanor.

Butz and his girlfriend baby-sat the girl from 2003 to December 2009, according to prosecutors. He would call the girl his "daughter" and she called him "daddy," Roberts said.

Butz's girlfriend will not face charges, Roberts said.

When the girl was 10, prosecutors said, Butz started kissing her and asked if she wanted to be his girlfriend. She told him, "I guess," prosecutors said. He told her not to tell anyone, Roberts said.

Butz started having sex with the girl when she was 12, Roberts said. He would have sex with her in his home, in his truck and in a camper at the Acorn Acres campground in Jackson Township, Columbia County, prosecutors said.

"He was a close family friend and everyone trusted him," Roberts said. "He manipulated the situation and took advantage of a young girl for his own sexual gratification. This verdict is vindication for the victim."

msisak@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2061, @cvmikesisak

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